While it’s always worth starting a new game of Cyberpunk 2077 just to hear Judy say "his own choomba shot him!" for the thirtieth time, there’s now a slightly more tangible reason to start a new journey into Night City’s open world. Update 2.2 went live yesterday, bringing with it a host of fixes, as well as some deeper customisation options for both your character and vehicles. The base game is also 55% off on Steam until the 18th of December, with the Phantom Liberty expansion at 20% off, or both in a 48% off bundle. Cyberpunk is on sale often enough, although these current discounts line up with the cheapest it's ever been on Steam. Again: worth it for the line.
]]>In the first post for my series on "saving" open world design, I complained that many of today's open worlds feel like checklists of formulaic tasks and rewards, their geography a vaporous staging ground for itemisable, cycling content-gathering opportunities, which flies in the face of the sense of freedom and wonder they're supposed to inspire. My interviewees, Elder Scrolls veterans Matt Firor and Nate Purkeypile, argued that this reflects the expense and scale of today's open world productions, which constrains experimental design both at a practical level and in terms of overall direction.
CD Projekt open world designer Jakub Tomczak doesn't, as far as I know, have an answer to the issue of production bloat, but he does have a disarmingly obvious solution to the 'checklist problem', based on his time creating missions for Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion: get better at hiding the checklist. Weave it into the landscape and setting more artfully, with an elegant balance of randomisation and responsiveness to the player's behaviour which keeps everything fresh.
]]>We've all seen it. The little spinning symbol cautioning players against impatient acts of powering down. "Don't turn off your system when this symbol is displayed," goes the message seen often while booting up a game (or some other version of these words). The implication is clear. The saving process is delicate and if you interrupt this invisible ritual the data that's being written to some folder deep in your PC's innards will become corrupted, wrecked, banjaxed. You will lose all your progress, all your precious swords and accomplishments.
But is this true? How likely are you to really suffer a catastrophic loss of shotgun shells? To find out, I decided to spend a very annoying afternoon of turning my gaming rig off and on again during multiple games. Was this a good idea? I don't know. I'm a gamer, not an ideas man.
]]>The makers of Cyberpunk 2077 host a podcast every once in a while, in which the studio's developers chat about what's going on in the company. In the latest episode, they're discussing their (relatively new) Boston studio and how it's spearheading the as-yet-enigmatic sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. There's a lot of middle-managey chit chat but one thing that stood out was one developer's earnest remarks about what he considers some of the sci-fi RPG's shortcomings.
"I see that we didn't push the envelope far enough in some places, for instance," said Paweł Sasko, Associate Game Director at CD Project RED. "Like, let's say the homeless crisis... when I look at it, I'm like, we weren't far enough in '77. We thought that we were dystopian, but... we just touched the surface."
]]>A new earnings report from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt makers CD Projekt Red has revealed that the follow-up to the sorceress-courting, Nekker-thwacking, horse-reassuring RPG is currently being worked on by around 400 people, and plans to move into the production phase by the “second half of the year.” Elsewhere, the report shows that the studio’s previous RPG, Cyberpunk 2077 officially ended all development at the end of April, at which time the remaining 17 staff still tweaking that game’s ray-traced chewing gum foil moved on to the Witcher 4 , or ‘Polaris’, as they keep insisting it's called.
]]>Dragon's Dogma 2 is seemingly a superb game, when it's not buggy or surprising its players with microtransactions.
CD Projekt Red are no stranger to releasing buggy games, but they're less keen on microtransactions - at least for singleplayer games. In an interview with a Polish investor site, CDPR's chief financial officer Piotr Nielubowicz said that they "do not see a place for microtransactions in the case of singleplayer games", but they wouldn't rule it out for multiplayer.
]]>CD Projekt Red are continuing to bulk up the team developing The Witcher 4 - officially codenamed Polaris - with two-thirds of the studio now working on the follow-up to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Meanwhile, the team working on Cyberpunk 2077 has shrunk to fewer than 20 people, less than half the number working on its upcoming sequel.
]]>While cloud gaming is very much not at a point where I want it to be the main way I play games, if I ever will, I do appreciate having the convenience as an option. Being able to play a game away from my PC can be handy. So it's neat that GOG have announced they're teaming up with Amazon to make select GOG games playable through the Amazon Luna cloud gaming platform "soon". Sure, I might be tempted to take a nice stroll through Night City while slouching about with my laptop that absolutely cannot run Cyberpunk 2077.
]]>A Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, currently called "Project Orion", is currently in the early stages of development at CD Projekt Red's new Boston studio. Today, CDPR announced several new high profile hires were joining the project, most notably Anna Megill. Megill, who will serve as lead writer on the project, has previously worked on games such as Control, Dishonored: Death Of The Outsider, and the upcoming Fable reboot.
]]>The next Cyberpunk game from CD Projekt - currently codenamed "Orion" - might have multiplayer in it, according to co-CEO Michal Nowakowski. Please let it be some kind of deckhead 'passenger-seat-driver' mode, where you get to play a crusty celeb uploaded to another character's brain implants, who strolls around the landscape as a hologram, offering passive-aggressive commentary. Watch those corners, samurai! Hey, you missed an ammo pack. SAMURAI ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME.
It'll be a while till we find out for sure: Orion is still in the conceptual phase, with CD Projekt expecting to have about 80 people working on it by the end of this year. The higher priority in 2024, it seems, is the next big steaming helping of The Witcher.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt makers CD Projekt Red have said in no uncertain terms that they “are not interested” in being acquired by another company, while still leaving the door open for the studio to potentially acquire others in the future.
]]>It's me, I'm back. Rock Paper Shotgun's dedicated Cyberpunk 2077 reporter. CD Projekt Red continue to pay my rent by releasing regular patches for the once-borked, now-brill open world so I can write news about them. The latest, Update 2.1, is out now and adds new races, car chases, romantic smooches, and a working metro system.
It also marks the release of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, a new digital bundle which includes both the base game and wonderful expansion Phantom Liberty.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 is finally getting the feature I most crave from every open world game: public transport. Update 2.1, due for release next week, is adding a fully-functioning metro system of the sort seen in Cyberpunk 2077's 2018 cinematic trailer - as well as new hangouts with your romantic pals, repeatable car races, and new accessibility settings.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 has several endings and the recent Phantom Liberty expansion added more. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that none of these endings are uncomplicated.
"I know that some players were disappointed that we didn’t add a 'good' ending when Phantom Liberty was released," says CD Projekt Red senior writer Magda Zych in a new interview. But Cyberpunk 2077 is "no place for happy endings."
]]>Cyberpunk 2077's lead quest designer Pawel Sasko has shared a few thoughts on the next Cyberpunk game, the mysterious "Orion" project. It's at a very early stage, with a core team that currently includes Cyberpunk 2077 game director Gabriel Amatangelo, narrative director Igor Sarinski and Sarah Gruemmer, expert quest designer, who worked on the storyline for Judy Alvarez in the previous game. They've all moved or are in the process of moving from Poland to Boston in the USA, where CD Projekt have opened a new office. One of the major challenges, right now, is getting to grips with Epic's Unreal Engine.
]]>Even after several years of updates and an excellent expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 still isn't bug-free. I said as much in my Phantom Liberty review. The difference now versus launch back in 2020 is that the bugs are now within acceptable limits.
CDPR continue to fix them, too. Patch 2.02 is out now.
]]>CD Projekt RED's Colin Walder, engineering director for management and audio, has shared a few thoughts on how the Polish developer's next Witcher RPG, codenamed Polaris, will improve on the cataclysmic development of Cyberpunk 2077. There's not a lot to share at this stage, of course, but what there is sounds like a step in the right direction.
]]>"I am most moved and always have been by stupid courage — the kind when, against all odds, the hero just keeps going," William Goldman once said. This is a thing Goldman I have in common. To help you tell us apart, a point of difference between Goldman and I is that he expressed his love of stupid courage by writing Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, whereas I express mine by really liking Cyberpunk 2077.
Stupid courage is a trait that CD Projekt Red's first-person RPG seems to admire, but that's never more clear than in a new ending to the base game added by the Phantom Liberty expansion. It shows what happens when the heroes reject stupid courage and choose self-centred pragmatism instead. Spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty throughout.
]]>If you've ever spoken to the ripperdoc character Viktor Vektor in the Polish localisation of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion, you've been talking to a cyborg. Technically, of course, most characters in Cyberpunk 2077 are cyborgs, but in this case, I'm referring to one voice actor posing as another using voice-cloning technology, following the second actor's death.
]]>Looking for a walkthrough of all the different Phantom Liberty endings and how they differ from one another? Cyberpunk 2077 already had a selection of different endings to choose from when it launched back in 2020, but part of the incredible scope of the new Phantom Liberty expansion is that it adds even more endings to both the DLC storyline and the base game.
There's a wealth of different choices to make in Phantom Liberty, but only a couple of key choices matter when it comes to deciding which of the four (technically five) endings you'll receive. In this guide we'll walk you through each of the Phantom Liberty endings in great detail, including how to reach each ending, and the consequences of your choices for each of the characters involved.
]]>There's a side mission in Cyberpunk 2077 that involves abducting a notorious union-breaker. One wonders if any of the people who worked on that have joined the union founded by CD Projekt RED employees this month. The union is part of the larger Polish worker's organisation OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza, and comes in response to CD Projekt's firing around 100 employees in July due to "overstaffing". Its membership is anonymous and open to people in the industry who aren't employed by the Witcher and Cyberpunk studio, but are thinking about forming a union in their own workplace.
"We started talking about unionizing after the 2023 wave of layoffs when 9% of Reds (that is roughly 100 people) were let go," reads an official FAQ from the group. "This event created a tremendous amount of stress and insecurity, affecting our mental health and leading to the creation of this union in response. Having a union means having more security, transparency, better protection, and a stronger voice in times of crisis."
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 - now redeemed and somewhat rebuilt after the car crash that was its initial launch - is looking ahead at the even further future. CD Projekt Red have expressed that they have “no regrets” about switching from a third-person camera to a first-person one in the transition from The Witcher to Cyberpunk, however, for future games in Night City, the studio are still undecided.
]]>I've decided to base part of my personality around liking Cyberpunk 2077. I thought I was long-since past the point when it was possible to construct my identity around liking a piece of media, but here I am, aged 38, researching tattoos.
So the news that CD Projekt Red have partnered with a production company to create a live action adaptation project set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077? I'm onboard.
]]>CD Projekt have released the full patch notes for Cyberpunk 2077's 2.01 update, which as you might recall, stops people tumbling through certain elevator floors when the frame-rate drops. Out now on PC, the update spans many other technical fixes and improvements, some of them specific to the recently released Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC.
]]>CD Projekt have detailed Cyberpunk 2077 2.01, the game's first patch following update 2.0, which implemented a top-to-bottom reset of the once-ailing but at present, rather triumphant sci-fi RPG. According to the provisional changelog, the latest update encompasses general performance improvements and minor fixes plus a fatal bug which sees V falling through an elevator floor to their death when the performance falls too low. Now that's what I call a plunging frame-rate.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077’s update 2.0 makes its RPG combat better than it’s ever been. The new perk system means that you can easily create a brutal killing machine, one capable of deflecting bullets with samurai swords and air-dashing like an anime hero to punch enemies apart.
Phantom Liberty, the expansion released right after update 2.0, makes its combat better in one extra way: by making most of it optional.
]]>How do you start Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077? Whether you're a returning Cyberpunk 2077 brought back by the promise of a brand new storyline and sweeping system changes, or this is your first time dipping into the overwhelmingly gorgeous world of Night City, you'll be wanting to know how to start playing the new Phantom Liberty expansion.
There are actually several ways to start playing Phantom Liberty depending on whether you want to play through from the beginning, start the expansion from an old character save, or start a new game that automatically skips ahead to when the new storyline begins. We'll go over each of these options below, along with some important advice when it comes to how and when to start Phantom Liberty in Cyberpunk 2077.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update arrived last week alongside new (and truly excellent) expansion Phantom Liberty, bringing a host of tweaks and improvements in an impressive climax to the originally technically-troubled and artistically-questionable game’s quite staggering redemption arc.
]]>CD Projekt have formally commented on the presence of references to the Russia-Ukraine war in Cyberpunk 2077's recently added Ukrainian localisation, apologising for dialogue lines "that can be considered offensive by Russian gamers", while reiterating their support for Ukraine.
In case you missed it, the Ukrainian script and menu localisation currently includes a number of antagonistic references to Russians and to the on-going Russian invasion of Ukraine. One dialogue line refers to a particular bandit group as "rusnia", and there's photo mode menu text for a squatting character that translates as "like a Russian". There's also lore text that apparently riffs on Ukrainian government rhetoric during the war, and a piece of in-game wallart that alludes to the dispute between Ukraine and Russia over Crimea.
]]>CD Projekt have dropped the launch trailer for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, in great news for fans of driving-combat-cutscene montages and wailing, rain-slicked theme tunes, but less great news, apparently, for mega fans of the male-presenting incarnation of player character V, voiced by Gavin Drea. I haven't touched Cyberpunk since release in 2020, and I'm sort of intrigued to discover that the female-presenting version of the protagonist, voiced by Cherami Leigh, has become the default for marketing purposes.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is, according to our reviewer Graham, "perhaps the best expansion pack ever made." Feh, small potatoes – Phantom Liberty’s most prestigious achievement is surely how it heralds a new ray tracing feature that makes Cyberpunk 2077 look and run a tiny bit better. On specific settings. And only on GeForce RTX graphics cards. The more expensive ones.
Hello, then, to DLSS 3.5 and its Ray Reconstruction component. Like how DLSS improves visuals and performance with AI-aided upscaling and ant-aliasing, Ray Reconstruction injects some machine learning cleverness into the rendering of ray tracing. Nvidia say Ray Reconstruction cleans up artefacts and reduces the performance impact of RT effects, and judging by how it works in Cyberpunk 2077, I’d say they’re correct – with the caveat that all its enhancements are, ultimately, modest.
]]>Reworked skill trees and new minigames aside, Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update includes a Ukrainian localisation of the game's million-plus-word script. It turns out the Ukrainian version is awash with references to Russia's on-going invasion of Ukraine, all of it seemingly in support of the latter. The news comes via Zone of Games, who have published a few side-by-side comparisons from the game's files, underlining differences between the English and Ukrainian translations in various bits of dialogue and menu text.
I asked the organisers of Indie Cup - a Kyiv, Ukraine-based digital festival of games like Pahris Entertainment's upcoming Space Wreck - to help me double-check the Ukrainian version's alterations. The Indie Cup team's Arsenii Tarasov was happy to oblige, and also volunteered a few further examples of more... adventurous localisation from his own research, supported with screenshots.
]]>The polished-up 2.0 update for Cyberpunk 2077 is out now, ahead of its Phantom Liberty expansion on September 26th. I’ve been trying out both, partly to see if the 2.0 newly raised hardware requirement of SSD storage is a warning worth heeding.
Hard lines against hard drive installations are new to PC games, but it was only a couple of weeks ago when Starfield showed the dangers of crossing them. Broken audio, regular freeze-ups, load times so long you could measure them with a calendar... an SSD really is the only way to play Starfield, and it sounded like Cyberpunk 2077 would follow suit. "We advise against running the game on an HDD (or on a SD card on Steam Deck) due to lower bandwidth which may cause new content to not stream properly," reads CD Projekt Red’s 2.0 patch notes. That’s us told.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion is attracting very positive reviews, and CD Projekt staff are naturally quite pleased about this. And also, very relieved. Released in 2020, the original Cyberpunk 2077 stands as an uncommonly thunderous example of overhype and project mismanagement, with technical issues at launch that extended from comical bugs such as disappearing penises to serious breaches such as graphical effects capable of triggering epileptic fits. CD Projekt have spent years attempting to address the underlying systemic and workplace issues and claw back some goodwill - hence, the general atmosphere on Xitter of developers needing to take five and stare at a flowerbed for a while. "It was a rough few years but there's finally celebration and closure (for me at least)," posted senior level designer Seb Mcbride.
]]>The Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion releases next week, but before that, we have Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update, a free rework that adds vehicle combat, smarter cops and new skill trees and perks, including the ability to play a sort of Wild Magic hacker and a skillset I can only describe as Big Hammer Go Brrrrrr. CD Projekt tech support have shared region-specific download availability for the update, together with some advice for new and returning Cyberpunk 2077 players taking the plunge. Let's have a look.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077's triumph was that it offered a sprawling story, dozens of hours long, which cohered around just a small number of themes. Or maybe even a single thesis: that the cynical, defensive, self-centred voice in your head - personified by ancient, soul-trapped, anarcho-rockstar Johnny Silverhand - offered only a literal dead-end, and that real rebellion in the face of a messed-up world lay in helping friends. It was Frank Capra with robot arms and samurai swords, and I ate it up.
V doesn't go to Washington in Phantom Liberty, but Washington comes to her. CD Projekt Red's major expansion to the first-person RPG opens up a new district and a new cast of characters, including the President of the New United States and an aging sleeper spy played by Idris Elba. The themes remain the same, but the thesis is being tested: how can you help your friends if you don't know who they are, and if their goals are mutually exclusive?
]]>Want to know the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty release time for your region? If you've been pining for this long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, you're in luck because its release is right around the corner. Upon its release time, everyone who owns the expansion will be able to sink their teeth into the massive game's all-new adventure and tons of additional content.
In this guide, we'll break down the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty release time, including information on when it will launch in various regions.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077's Update 2.0 - which adds new skill trees and perks, vehicle combat, and revamped police responses to the FPS-RPG - will launch on September 21st. That's a little before the release of the paid expansion, Phantom Liberty, on September 26th.
The release date was announced today as part of a developer stream, which also included a new cinematic trailer for the expansion featuring a little of Idris Elba's character before the events of the game.
]]>CD Projekt Red has detailed exactly which of Cyberpunk 2077’s upcoming changes will be offered to all players as part of the game’s major 2.0 update, and which additions will be included in the game’s massive Phantom Liberty expansion.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion got a new trailer a couple of days ago, alongside news that many of its system overhauls will come to the base game for free. Now developers CD Projekt Red have gone into more detail about the changes in a new Phantom Liberty livestream which showed the expanded skill tree, some new perks, the overhauled vehicle combat, among other things.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty releases on September 26th. It continues the story of V and her sidekick, imaginary sweary Keanu Reeves, but it also overhauls skills, perks, car chases, police and more.
You can watch some of the updates in action in a new trailer shown during tonight's Gamecom Geoffstravaganza, but the exciting bit is that several of those overhauls are also coming to the base game in a free 2.0 update,
]]>As with Half-Life 2 RTX, Nvidia have taken to Gamescom to make a heap of DLSS announcements. Chief among these is an upcoming new version, DLSS 3.5, which will add to DLSS 3’s existing toolkit of upscaling and AI frame generation with a new trick named Ray Reconstruction. And it sounds pretty clever, if currently limited in application.
]]>CD Projekt Red have announced another batch of layoffs, this time affecting “around 100” employees, or roughly 9% of the company’s total headcount. The redundancies won’t take place immediately, according to CDPR, as some employees won’t lose their jobs until early next year at the latest.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 was better than reviewers gave it credit for when it first released, but it struggled to overcome a “a critical mass of negativity”, the VP of PR and communications for studio CD Projekt Red has said.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty got a new trailer and a release date during this month's Xbox Games Showcase. If you watched Xbox's extended showcase a few days later then you would have seen more of the game and of one of its stars, Keanu Reeves.
Let's assume you didn't watch that, though. Let's assume that you, like me, were by that point too exhausted from 90 second trailers to tune in. Let's instead watch these videos now, since they've just been uploaded as separate videos, to learn more about Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's new district, Dogtown.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty will have multiple endings, CD Projekt Red have confirmed, but interestingly it will also add in a brand new ending for the base game, too. Game director Gabe Amatangelo recently spoke to WCCFTech about the upcoming DLC, detailing when it takes place in the Cyberpunk 2077 timeline and how it fits into the story.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty got a new trailer and release date earlier this evening. Developers CD Projekt Red then followed up by sharing the expansion's system requirements, which includes a GeForce GTX1060 6GB or Radeon RX 580 8GB in order to hit 1080p at 30fps as minimum spec.
CDPR also say they're amending the system requirements to the base game and will no longer supporting hard disk drives.
]]>A new trailer for Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty announces a release date of September 26th. It also gives a glimpse of what's waiting for V as she ventures into the brand new district of Dogtown to rescue the president. I hope so much for a gang of wild skateboarders. The trailer also introduces us to the new character played by Idris Elba (Stringer Bell in The Wire, Luther in Luther, Knuckles in Sonic The Hedgehog 2).
]]>Nvidia have previewed the upcoming Overdrive Mode for Cyberpunk 2077, showcasing how it replaces the game’s already extensive ray tracing effects with full path tracing. Why Nvidia and not the developers, CD Projekt Red? Well, that might have something to do with Overdrive Mode being such a graphics card shatterer that it will supposedly take a GeForce RTX 40 series GPU – with DLSS 3 in effect – to run.
]]>It’s 2023 and Cyberpunk 2077 finally works… on the Steam Deck, I mean (it’s worked elsewhere for a while now.) The open-world RPG has always been playable on the portable machine, but it’s now Steam Deck verified - meaning Valve have tested it and used their almighty wisdom to determine it’ll run without a hitch.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 launched in a sorry state, prompting rending of garments by gamers and a class action lawsuit from CD Projekt Red investors. That suit alleged that CDPR had "made materially false or misleading statements" regarding the game, particularly as related to the condition of its console release, and sought damages.
Now a proposed settlement has been approved by a federal judge in California's Central District. The settlement reached will see CDPR pay out $1.85 million USD (around £1.52m GBP), or roughly $0.49 per eligible share.
]]>We’re just a few weeks off living in the futuristic year of 2023, so it’s entirely unsurprising that the world’s (former) richest man just dropped the whole of Steam’s catalogue as a form of in-car entertainment. Elon Musk shared his company Tesla’s announcement, via his company Twitter, that not his company Steam was now supported in Tesla’s newest Model S and X vehicles. Do you remember when I-spy was the height of gaming in a car? Well, now you can pretty much play whatever game you like instead with the Tesla holiday update. You can use a controller, but it supports mouse and keyboard wirelessly for that authentic roadside PC experience.
]]>We got another glimpse at Cyberpunk 2077's paid Phantom Liberty expansion at The Game Awards tonight, revealing that Luther, Knuckles and Stringer Bell himself Idris Elba will be joining yer man Keanu in its starry cast. Come and see him in action in the reveal trailer below.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion will cost you real monies, CD Projekt Red have confirmed. Was there ever any doubt about this? I've no idea, but if you were previously living with the belief that substantial story additions to blockbuster games with voice acting by Keanu Reeves might be free, then I apologise for bursting your bubble.
]]>Nvidia DLSS 3 is arguably the single most interesting thing to emerge from the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 GPU launches. Even with, I’ll concede, some limits: whereas previous DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) versions have been available to any GeForce RTX graphics card, DLSS 3 is currently only usable on these RTX 40 series models. Or will be, once the RTX 4080 goes on sale on November 16th. Yet having tested it out on the RTX 4090, I’m convinced it could be as big a deal as the cards themselves, especially if you have a high-refresh-rate gaming monitor.
]]>CD Projekt Red recently updated Cyberpunk 2077 to add items from the new anime series, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Their own updates didn't add the show's omnipresent risk of cyberpsychosis, however, so a modder has stepped in to do it for them. The Wannabe Edgerunner mod adds a "humanity" cost to all cyberware implants and certain actions in the open-world shooter, as well as consequences for when your humanity gets too low.
]]>In an update for investors, CD Projekt Red today outlined their "long-term product outlook." It contains some projects we already knew about, such as next year's Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty, but also many that we did not. That includes a new trilogy of The Witcher RPGs, a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, and a brand new IP being developed by CD Projekt Red, plus two further games in The Witcher universe being created by third-party studios.
]]>Want to know how to get the best Cyberpunk 2077 Sandevistan? Cyberpunk 2077 has seen a huge resurgence in popularity after the release of the anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners on Netflix. Edgerunners gave us a brand new look at Night City, its inhabitants, and some of the incredibly impressive high-end cyberware you can use to give yourself truly superhuman abilities.
Prime among these high-tech pieces of cyberware is the Sandevistan - an operating system which gives its user dramatically heightened senses and temporary time dilation effects, allowing them to move at super speed. This is the cyberware used by David, the protagonist of Cyberpunk Edgerunners - and it's also available in Cyberpunk 2077 as a very powerful high-end piece of cybernetic gear.
Below we'll walk you through how to get your hands on the very best Sandevistan in Cyberpunk 2077. We'll show you where to go to purchase the operating system, how to use it, and how to use mods to lower its cooldown so much that you can pretty much always have its potent effects active while fighting.
]]>A great many new Cyberpunk 2077 mods are adding bits and pieces from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the new ultraviolent spin-off anime series. Various mods let V dress up as characters from Edgerunners and wield their weapons, as well as adding music, adverts, and more to the game world. Players old and new have flocked to the dystopian RPG since Edgerunners debuted on Netflix earlier this month, and I imagine more than a few might want to cosplay as their Best Girl (a controversial topic which I dare not broach).
]]>Long-troubled sci-fi action RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is experiencing something of a comeback, almost two years since it was released on PC and consoles. CD Projekt have revealed in a tweet that the game has seen one million players every day this week so far, across all platforms. They say this figure includes players new to Night City, as well as those returning. I’ve never played it, so don’t look at me.
]]>Anime show Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is streaming on Netflix from today, more than two years after the big tudum and Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projekt announced they were working together. The show may have hit whatever the 21st century equivalent of airwaves is and become a tangible piece of media to consume now, but CD Projekt have confirmed in an earnings call that they’re still “fully committed” to continuing with the Cyberpunk IP. I can’t believe I just typed the term IP.
]]>In a new Night City Wire tonight, CD Project Red played the strongest card they have in their Cyberpunk 2077 deck, that being Keanu "Nicest Guy In Hollywood" Reeves. America's bad-ass actor dad played semi-imaginary rock anarchist (I know I'm being reductive, don't leave comments) Johnny Silverhand in the main game, and he popped up to confirm he's back for 2023's expansion - which we now know is officially called Phantom Liberty.
There's also the Edgerunner update dropping today, a tie-in for the Netflix anime Edgrunners (more info on that was also revealed tonight), and free-to-play mini game featuring Roach the horse, because we all like Roach the horse.
]]>CD Projekt broadcast a Night City Wire stream today to give the lowdown on anime series Edgerunners and details of a tie-in update for Cyberpunk 2077. Edgerunners debuts on Netflix on September 13th, and producer Bartosz Sztybor explained a bit more about what to expect from the series. You can watch Edgerunners’ NSFW trailer below.
]]>The anime series based on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 starts streaming on Netflix on September 13th, a new trailer has revealed. Jack in, boot up and sit down to watch the not-safe-for-work trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners below. Just tell your boss they’re needed in a meeting or something.
]]>With only a month or so to go until the anime spin-off of Cyberpunk 2077 hits screens, Netflix and CD Projekt have fired out a full trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It has a little more background for the main characters, and introduces their cyborg posse. Watch the very edgy trailer below.
]]>Can you believe it’s already been twenty years since CD Projekt Red started making games? No? Well, let’s have a quick refresher of what else happened in 2002 for some perspective: Queen’s Golden Jubilee, check, last confirmed sighting of the Yangtze river dolphin, righto, SARS starts spreading… okay, let’s just stick to tipping our hats at one of Poland’s best known games developers for now. You can start doing that when the CDPR 20th anniversary livestream kicks off at 3pm BST/4pm CEST/7am PDT today.
]]>I like anime, but I possibly like anime intros even more. At their best they're a rush of style and energy, they often feature better animation than the show that follows, and they are regularly scored by first rate Japanese jazz, rock or blues tracks.
Netflix just posted the intro to the upcoming Cyberpunk anime, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and it's got a Franz Ferdinand track over the top - but hey, it's still pretty good.
]]>In the giant jumbled word cloud of all my qualities and traits, I'm willing to bet that "pluviophile" would be one of the biggest words. I adore rain. Whenever it starts, I tend to drop whatever I'm doing - work, dishes, significant other - and I'll be out frolicking in the downpour before they've hit the floor.
Because I love rain so much, I hold games to an almost unfair standard when it comes to the simulation of precipitation. How in the world can a videogame come close to emulating that wonderful, transcendental feeling of being outside in the middle of a thunderstorm? The answer is, it can't. Games have to rely on other things, like textures, sounds, and clever little animations to really sell the idea of being out amongst the H₂s and the Os.
The time has come, fellow pluviophiles. It's time to grade the very best rain that PC gaming has to offer. Below you'll find our eight worthy contenders. Each has been chosen for their spectacular rendition of one of nature's greatest phenomena. Each one shall be marked according to my patented and cutting-edge WIPERS grading system for digital rain. So drop what you're doing. It's time to frolick. No umbrella required.
]]>One of the best parts of Cyberpunk 2077 is Night City itself, a loud and colourful place full of interesting details and decorations. I explored loads on foot, I explored more with the mod adding trains V can ride, and today I've explored even more with a mod adding hovercars. It's very cool, and I have only crashed about a hundred times.
]]>Wake up, samurai, because Cyberpunk 2077’s animated series Edgerunners is finally sliding its motorcycle onto Netflix in September. The announcement came as part of the streaming behemoth’s Geeked Week promotion of its upcoming movies, TV and games, which debuted the first footage of the new show. Watch the teaser below:
]]>Details of Cyberpunk 2077's first expansion have apparently leaked, including the dialogue for all its main quests. The leak apparently comes via files accidentally included with the Cyberpunk 1.5 patch released back in February, which were removed by CDPR hours later but discovered and saved by dataminers.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077's first expansion will arrive in 2023, according to the game's Twitter account. The tweet offers a little more detail after today's CD Projekt Red investor call, in which it was confirmed that development work on the expansion was on the docket for 2022.
]]>Early on in my playthrough of CD Projekt Red’s 7/10 NFT screensaver Cyberpunk 2077, I realised you could climb washing lines.
I’m a real sucker for verticality, so normally I’d be immediately trying to see how high I could get, but after tentatively scaling a few floors I decided to give the urgent main quest the benefit of the doubt. There would probably just be a disappointing invisible wall anyway. I climbed back down and did my best to engage with the expensive cutscenes filled with proper actors. 50 hours of mediocre Strange Days references later, I had most of the game under my belt and was ready to go searching for something more substantial - to try to find some actual cyberpunk in this retrowave moodboard. I set about pushing Cyberpunk 2077 to the vertical limit.
]]>The most despicable, awful and down right evil thing I’ve ever done in a video game was during a Dark Side playthrough of Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. At the end of the side quest Honest Debt, you convince a man to either spare or gun down a rather horrible chap who wronged him greatly. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about that - I’ve encountered the same thing dozens of times in games - but what comes after is a real doozy.
Not content simply with nudging the fella into giving in to his worst impulses, I then proceeded to persuade him to wipe the very memory of his nemesis from the galaxy, up to and including hunting down his friends and family members. Bastilla Shan, noted Jedi do-gooder, pointed out that neither she nor the Jedi council would approve. I was giggling like a schoolgirl.
]]>As is tradition by now, Cyberpunk 2077 has released its latest extremely long list of fixes. This time it focuses on cleaning up quests, and a miscellaneous number of other bugs.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 was an infuriating mess in so many ways when I reviewed it at the end of 2020, but a funny thing would happen every time I'd stop playing it. All the T-posed NPCs, floataway physics bugs and crashes-to-desktop would be lost in time, like tears in rain. What remained was the deep appreciation I had for its story and characters, and a longing to revisit Night City.
So I have. After last week's patch 1.5 promised more fixes, a refreshed perk tree and improved AI, I wondered if I might finally be able to champion the first-person RPG without caveats. The answer is not a simple yes or no - but the list of caveats is definitely a lot shorter.
]]>A group of former CD Projekt Red folks have formed a new studio, announcing plans to make their own "AAA" "story-driven" "dark fantasy RPG". The studio are named Rebel Wolves, and they're founded by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who was director of The Witcher 3 and secondary game director on Cyberpunk 2077. Their RPG is largely a mystery for now, though a wee bit of artwork suggests at least one vampire is involved?
]]>The huge new patch released for Cyberpunk 2077 yesterday is mostly a good'un, bringing the dystopian RPG closer to the game it should have been 14 months ago. But Update 1.5 might be bad news for players with older PCs. CD Projekt Red have officially ended support for Nvidia GeForce 700 series graphics cards, and announced plans to end Windows 7 support later this year. This isn't immediately bad, but the game could end up breaking on affected computers in the future.
]]>CD Projekt Red have finally launched Cyberpunk 2077's long-awaited Update 1.5, which for us here on PC means newness including a rebuild of the perk trees, AI improvements, the ability to change V's appearance, new apartments to buy, and loads more. Oh, and Update 1.5 will bring the long-awaited next-gen version to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Xeriex XS.
]]>On a stretch of futuristic tarmac, something clicked. Yellow quest markers hadn't built my relationships in Cyberpunk 2077. When a job needed doing, then they'd steer me in the right direction. But for those initial sparks of story, my cellphone had been key. Chats and texts buzzed into my brain at all hours. "Hey V", "V, got a minute?", "V!"
Characters would get in contact with me, not the other way around. And I liked that. In fact, I'd say it helped build a living, breathing world more than Night City's towering skyscrapers and moving billboards. More than, perhaps, any other big RPG I've played over the last couple of years.
]]>The person who edited Austin Powers into Mass Effect, to the delightful and horror of all, has now spliced up another storm. Their latest video melds Mr Bean clips with scenes from Cyberpunk 2077 and goodness me, he seems thrilled to enter a dystopian megacity. You might fear Night City will eat the rubber-faced fool alive, but maybe he's the only one of us who could survive it. Come watch!
]]>A new Cyberpunk 2077 mod makes the dystopian RPG's decorative monorails functional, adding a metro system with cute wee trains you can ride. For all the game's flaws, I did greatly enjoy wondering Night City's streets, cooing at giant buildings and bright colours, and today I was glad to continue that tourism on rail. How lovely to see the megacity from a new perspective, looking down on rooftops and being buzzed by hovercars. See a wee bit of my journey in a video below.
]]>CD Projekt have announced plans to pay out $1,850,000 (£1.4 million) to settle a class action lawsuit brought by investors over Cyberpunk 2077's troubles. The suit started in December 2020 with investors primarily upset with the fact that the console version was in such a state, claiming that CDP hadn't been honest about the game and its prospects. CDP say that the proposed settlement terms make clear that though they are paying out, this "does not imply admission of any responsibility".
]]>As CD Projekt Red continue to fix up their fancy-but-oh-so-flawed futuristic RPG Cyberpunk 2077, they've confirmed that we should expect a "major update" next year, by the end of March. CDPR had previously said Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen console update would be out by then, but confirming another big patch for everyone then too is news. Not big news, but welcome news, especially considering how many new players the game has picked up since going half-price in Black Friday sales.
]]>This Friday is dubbed Black Friday in the USA because it's a dark time, when people will literally be maimed or killed in the crush to buy cheap televisions. The lowest ebb of the year before Cyber Monday brings to the light of redemption to the world when kewl d00dz hackers hack the planet. But it does bring cheap video games. GOG have already started a small "Pre-Black Friday sale", with good discounts including 50% off Disco Elysium and 50% off Cyberpunk 2077. Hmm. I might recommend it at that price?
]]>The update adding raytracing and other mod cons to The Witcher 3 will not launch this year, developers CD Projekt Red announced today. They've been fancying up their fantasy RPG for the latest console generation, and those 'next-gen' additions are headed to PC in a patch too. But not this year. Instead, look to be blinded by the light in spring 2022. They've also delayed the next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077 for consoles.
]]>The latest Cyberpunk 2077 patch is small, but the bugs it fixes aren't. 1.31 addresses issues that only affected some users, but they include issues that would halt progress on critical quests if they happened. The patch is live now.
]]>CD Projekt Red's plans to keep patching Cyberpunk 2077 this year continue with the upcoming 1.3 update. As they've done previously, CDPR have dished out a few indications of what changes are coming via some in-world news posts today. They're teasing some minimap updates, help with a tricky romance choice, and cheaper perk point refunds. These changes are "not the biggest ones and there’ll be more to come," CDPR say. They'll be showing off more of update 1.3 tomorrow. Here's a look at what they've shared so far in the meantime.
]]>When Cyberpunk 2077 launched, it was an absolute mess, and game storefronts took wildly different approaches when it came to dealing with that. While Sony simply said, "get off of my PlayStations and don't come back until you're fixed", the Microsoft Store kept it, and offered to fully refund disappointed players on Xbox and PC "until further notice". But seeing as CD Projekt Red have been gradually improving the dystopian RPG in regular updates, Microsoft says the return policy will go back to normal on July 6th.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 has received yet another round of fixes, in the RPG's grim march from a mess everyone was excited about to a functional game everyone has forgotten about. This one addresses bugs across several quests, and a handful of PC-specific bugs.
]]>Last night, Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projekt Red posted an update about data leaks following the cyber attack they experienced earlier this year. This news really doesn't fit in with last night's Summer Game Fest celebrations however, because CDPR are concerned that current and former employee data might now be circulating online, in addition to game data.
]]>It was only on the second watch that I noticed. The video embedded below doesn't just mash together Frasier Crane with the world of Cyberpunk 2077, it creates a cover of "Never Fade Away" from the game's soundtrack which is so convincing I didn't even notice the lyrics had been changed to "tossed salad and scrambled eggs."
]]>The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has resigned from CD Projekt Red after an internal investigation into alleged workplace bullying, Bloomberg reports. Tomaszkiewicz, who was secondary game director and head of production on Cyberpunk 2077, denies the allegations, but apologised "for all the bad blood I have caused" in an email to CD Projekt staff.
]]>Step right up, CD Projekt Red have served the up the next Cyberpunk 2077 hotfix fresh off the food truck in Night City. Following that big Patch 1.2 in March and another hotfix earlier this month, this one solves more quest bugs, some clothing clipping, and more stability fixes.
]]>Wallrunning! Survey says: folks are pretty big fans of zooming sideways along buildings. Games that have weird and different ways of letting a player traverse are always the most fun, and it was a shame when CD Projekt Red revealed they'd cut the wall-running out of Cyberpunk 2077 during its development. But, what developers taketh away, modders giveth back - someone has made a basic wall-running mod so that we might do some sick cyberpunk parkour after all.
]]>When a baby is about six months old they're often able to sit up on their own, are eating solid food, and might even have their first tooth coming in. Cyberpunk 2077, the current boxed-cat of games in that it's simultaneously the world's most and least favourite action RPG, is now at that same developmental stage, with its second meaty patch (1.2) having arrived at the end of March. There was even a new hotfix this very day! So I have been playing it to see what kind of a big fat cyber-baby it is now. And the answer is: mostly the same baby it was before, just working better.
]]>Following Cyberpunk 2077's huge patch 1.2 at the end of March, CD Projekt Red today followed-up with the hotfix patch 1.21. This is a smaller update, focused on improving stability and fixing crashes as well as addressing some bugs which stopped certain quests from progressing. Every little helps.
]]>This is a slightly different episode of The Weekspot. We had to record a little earlier because of the Easter weekend in the UK, and Matthew wasn’t able to come on because of prior commitments.
So, instead of talking to myself for an hour and a half, I drafted in two lovely guests: Josh Wise of VideoGamer and Rich Walker of Xbox Achievements.
]]>During CD Projekt Red's company strategy video yesterday, the studio covered all sorts of ways in which they feel they got things wrong during Cyberpunk 2077's development. Not just development, but Cyberpunk's marketing too. In the future, they say they'll wait until much closer to a game's launch to start firing up trailers and demos and in depth looks at gameplay. That means if there's another big Witcher game out there on the horizon, we may not hear about it for quite a while yet. Honestly? Good.
]]>In a company strategy video released today, CD Projekt Red have outlined changes they plan to make to the development studio's structure and focus. Chief among the changes is the news that their next project will no longer be a standalone multiplayer Cyberpunk game.
Instead, they're going to focus on developing fundamental technology that will eventually bring multiplayer components to all of their games. This was explained alongside a shift towards "parallel AAA game development", which will allow them to simultaneously work on both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher series.
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